Bzzzzz!! Spring flowers and bees are a match made into honey. Here’s the buzz about bees. ▶▶There are between 25,000 and 100,000 bees in a hive. ▶▶To make one pound of honey, a single bee must tap two million flowers. ▶▶A honeybee flies about 15 mph. ▶▶A normal colony contains only one Queen. ▶▶The Queen bee can lay as many as 2,000 eggs during her busy season. ▶▶During the working season, the average lifespan of a honeybee is six weeks. ▶▶The flower nectar which they gather contains about 70% water. ▶▶Bees producing honey from flowering plants dates back from between 10 and 20 million years. ▶▶Each honeycomb has six sides. ▶▶Bees have four wings. ▶▶The value of bees pollinating fruits, crops, vegetables and legumes is almost 20 times more than the value of honey produced. ▶▶A single honeybee visits between 50 and 100 flowers during one collection trip. Fast Facts Answers to Outside the Box Puzzles from page 48 1. Up in arms 2. A diamond in the rough 3 A dime, a dozen 4. Favourite meeting place 5. Mother-in-law 6. Green around the gills WhoKnew? Random stuff to file away in your trivia bank. ▶▶The original name for the search engine Google was Backrub. ▶▶The Barbie doll’s official birthdate was March 9, 1959 and her name was Barbara Millicent Roberts. ▶▶Bats are the only mammals that can actually fly. ▶▶The wedding of Prince Charles and Princess Diana was watched by 750 million people worldwide. Sadly, 2.5 billion watched her funeral in 1997. ▶▶More people visit France than any other country. Spain is second and the U.S. is third. ▶▶There aren’t actually 57 varieties of Heinz ketchup. The founder thought that the product needed a number and simply chose 57. ▶▶An elephant’s heart weighs around 30 lbs., whereas a human heart weighs a mere 10 ounces. ▶▶There are no muscles in the human finger. Function is controlled by muscles in the palms and arms. In TheRear-ViewMirror A few significant events that happened a century ago in 1922. ▶▶Insulin was used for the first time to treat diabetes in humans. ▶▶The first Reader’s Digest magazine was published. ▶▶The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) was founded. ▶▶The tomb of Tutankhamun was discovered in Egypt. ▶▶The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) was created. ▶▶Alexander Graham Bell died. ▶▶Construction of Yankee Stadium began. ▶▶British Columbia changed from driving on the left to the right. HowSweet it is!! Everything you need to know about Canadian maple syrup. ▶▶It takes about 40 gallons of sap to make one gallon of the syrup. ▶▶A sugar maple tree takes about four decades of growth before it’s big enough to tap. ▶▶Only three of 13 species of maple trees native to Canada are used for syrup. ▶▶Quebec produces two-thirds of the world’s supply. ▶▶Stored properly, a sealed container of maple syrup can keep for several years. ▶▶It’s packed with nutrients and antioxidants. ▶▶Due to rationing during the Second World War, Canadians were encouraged to sweeten recipes with maple syrup. ▶▶It is now mostly collected with suction pump systems, not pails. ▶▶A single tree can produce up to 15 gallons of sap per year. ▶▶It’s exported to 45 countries around the world. ▶▶Frosty nights and warm days help to encourage the sap to flow. ▶▶Tapping typically occurs between late February and early April. ▶▶Maple sap is mostly crystal-clear water with about 2% sugar content. SpringQuotes “In spring, at the end of the day, you should smell like dirt. ” Margaret Atwood “Spring is nature’s way of saying, Let’s Party!” Robin Williams “That is one good thing about this world...there are always sure to be more springs. ” L.M. Montgomery 54 | www.snowbirds.org
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